Anatomy & Physiology Classes Watch A Total Knee Replacement Surgery - LIVE!

Thanks to the generous support from WEEFC, the 3 High School Anatomy & Physiology classes were able to watch a total knee replacement surgery live from the GEC.

The Center of Science and Industry (COSI), in partnership with Mt. Carmel Hospital, video conferenced a knee surgery today for the students to watch.  The surgeons, nurses, physician's assistant, surgical tech, anesthesiologist and medical sales reps all had an opportunity to speak to the students about what they do, how they got to this career and why they love it.  Students had an opportunity to ask questions of the surgeon and see the skeletal and muscle system (our last unit and our current unit) up close and personal!

Here is a diagram of what the students were actually able to see live:

The surgery took a little over an hour and everyone was captivated! Just take a look:

Science Team at the MIT Invitational

The WHS Science Team battled the snow to show up for the MIT Invitational and had a blast!

CP Physics - Golf ball boat!

CP Physics classes used the Engineering/Design Process to construct their own golf ball boats!  See picture below as a great example of this fun hands-on activity in class.

8th grade learns about Climate Change

Dr. John Dwyer (climate scientist from MIT) presented to the 8th grade in the GEC at the high school about climate change and extreme weather.  

WHS Hosts Science Olympiad!

The WHS Science Team competes in the Science Olympiad multiple times over the course of the year.  Each olympiad is held at a different participating school, and January was our month to host!

Faculty Advisors Chris Chiodo and Mary Liu, the Science department faculty along with a gaggle of National Honors Society and Science students assisted in the smooth implementation of this exciting event.  Seven schools participated in the various events, and everyone had a blast!

Pharmaceutical Chemist visits Grade 8 Science!

Dr. Kailash Sumathi (father of Dhruv), visited the Grade 8 Science classes on Friday, November 6.

Dr. Sumathi with 8th grade Science teachers (from L to R): Jody Salisbury, Steve Boardman & Janice Corley.

He launched his talk by talking about lab safety and discussed the current class topic of chemical and physical changes.  He challenged students as to the state of matter of a tomato, then froze it in CO2/water and shattered it.  He showed how CO2 gas (made from dry ice and water) could put out flames and made a flame using nothing more than a battery and fluffy steel wool!

He lit magnesium and extinguished with CO2, made a precipitate with silver nitrate, blew and bent glass, made thin drawn pipettes and created foam with soap/water to challenge students to think about what state of matter foam might be. This began a great discussion of how foam was a hot area of research right now- NASA has a product that is so light it floats in air but can withstand the blast of a blow torch!

Live Action Action Potentials!

The juniors and seniors in Anatomy and Physiology get physically familiar with ion movement during an Action Potential.  Students imitate Sodium Channels, Potassium Channels and the Sodium/Potassium Pump as they physically move ions (crumpled paper balls) across the membrane to simulate an Action Potential traveling down the axon.